US diplomats 'in talks with Afghanistan Taliban'

By Taimoor Shah

July 29, 2018 — 3.51pm

Kandahar: In a reversal of a long-standing policy, United States diplomats held face-to-face talks with Taliban representatives in Qatar a week ago without Afghan government officials present, according to two senior Taliban officials.

The US State Department did not deny that its diplomats had taken part in such talks — a significant shift in US strategy toward the Taliban in Afghanistan.

"Any negotiations over the political future of Afghanistan will be between the Taliban and Afghan government," a state department spokeswoman, Stephanie Newman, said.

The Afghan president's office said on Saturday that it welcomed any support for peace efforts.

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Afghan security personnel carry an injured officer after an attack near the Kabul Airport, in Kabul, Afghanistan on July 22.Credit:AP

The talks were conducted against a backdrop of continuing deadly attacks throughout the country. A nearly seven-hour assault by extremists on a school for midwives in eastern Afghanistan on Friday killed two people and wounded 11 others.

Most of the 67 young female students were evacuated quickly or fled to a fortified safe room on the grounds of the school in Jalalabad. Three of them were wounded, according to a police official. In addition, 12 young children in a day care centre for the school's staff escaped harm, authorities said.

Gholam Sanayi Stanikzai, police chief for Nangarhar province, said the attack ended after two suicide attackers, who had been fighting with automatic weapons and grenades, detonated their explosive vests as the police closed in.

Families leaves their homes after a rocket strike in the western part of Kabul, Afghanistan, on July 24.Credit:AP

Two male employees of the centre were killed and five others wounded, he said, and three police officers were wounded, as well. All the students and the children were rescued.

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The talks took place in Doha, where the Taliban have long maintained an informal "political office" for the purpose of restarting the long-dormant peace process. They involved several members of the Taliban political commission and Alice Wells, the State Department's senior South Asia diplomat, as well as other unidentified US diplomats, according to the two Taliban officials.

The Taliban officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the diplomatic sensitivities around the talks.

The New York Times reported on July 15 that such talks were expected, after the Trump administration told its top diplomats they could begin direct negotiations with the Taliban. The insurgents had always demanded negotiations with the Americans as a precondition to any peace talks as long as the US military was still in Afghanistan.

But US officials have taken pains to insist that such talks would not mean the abandonment of what has been a long-standing policy that any peace process would be "Afghan owned and Afghan led".

The meeting involved Wells and other senior US diplomats, one of the Taliban officials said, and emphasised that direct talks with US officials, in person and without the presence of Afghan officials or ministers, were a demand of the insurgents' leadership.

A boy runs along a wall at the top of Bibi Mahru Hill in Kabul, Afghanistan.Credit:Bloomberg

The other official said that the meeting had concerned the peace process, and that the Taliban were expecting good results from it, including further similar meetings. Neither Taliban representative would discuss in further detail the substance of the talks.

Similar efforts to start peace talks between the Americans and the Taliban in Doha in 2015 faltered after the Afghan government denounced the process. There has been no such reaction so far this time.

"The government of Afghanistan welcomes every effort which supports the peace process under the auspices of the government," said Durrani Waziri, a deputy spokeswoman for President Ashraf Ghani. "We appreciate help and support from any side that can facilitate the peace process."

Waziri declined to comment, however, on whether the government was aware that the Americans had met with the Taliban in Doha.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, shake hands after a press conference at the presidential palace in Kabul on July 9.Credit:AP

Atta Ul Rahman Salim, deputy head of Afghanistan's High Peace Council, said, "We as the peace council welcome every effort by the people, organisations and countries that can facilitate peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government."

Hopes for peace talks were bolstered recently when the government and the Taliban declared overlapping cease-fires at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The cease-fires were widely respected by both sides and received enthusiastically.

In addition, peace marchers have drawn widespread support throughout much of the country, building grass-roots pressure on the government to hold peace talks.

Ghani has offered to hold another cease-fire for the Eid al-Adha holiday, in late August, and US military and diplomatic officials have approved of that suggestion.

On a visit to Kabul last Monday, the US military officer in charge of Central Command, Gen. Joseph L Votel, was asked about the new US stance on peace talks.

"As President Ghani has indicated, he's ready to pursue something without conditions — that speaks for itself," he said.

"Everything can be on the table here as we move forward with this Afghan-led process."